After Morelia we come to the next historical silver town: Taxco. Here there was already mining in the 16th century to get the valuable metals and minerals in the rock. Mainly silver was mined. There are also deposits of gold, sulfur and other mineral resources. Today Taxco is still known for silver jewelry, but the silver is no longer mined in Taxco. The craftsmanship is strong thanks to a long tradition and accordingly the jewelry can keep up well with the world market.
What is also special about the city is that it is very hilly, it is almost always up or down, rarely straight ahead.
The first thing we discover is the historic center of Taxco.

Historical center of Taxco

Like many other towns with a historical past, Taxco has a colonial style town center. The white house facades with the reddish clay tile roofs create a beautiful picture of this mountain town. It is very winding and has either very narrow or very steep alleys between the houses which is due to the hilly landscape. Of course, there are also alleys where both come together. The innermost streets and alleys are very nicely decorated and invite you to stroll through the various jewelry stores, galleries and cafes. As soon as we are a little outside the tourist city center on foot, this impression fades quite quickly, because then again it depends on the individual homeowners and residents to ensure a tidy appearance.

We visit briefly the church Santa Prisca at the main square of Taxco. The main square is called Zocalo in many Mexican cities. However, as quickly as we were in the church, we are back on the Zocalo, as Sunday mass is just taking place. As always, the tourist visit to the church during the service is rather inappropriate.

On our small tour through Taxco we stroll a little towards a higher part of the city, so that we also get a nice overview of Taxco. For us it is every time impressive how hilly the historic mountain sites have been preserved. The houses and streets are simply laid over the topography just as the inhabitants wanted them.

Mine of Taxco

Since we could not visit a mine in Guanajuato, we can do so here in Taxco in the mine of Taxco. Under a listed hotel, an old mine tunnel including a natural fault was discovered during a recently planned extension in the basement. Today, therefore, the mine of Taxco can be visited under the hotel. The planned night club was not realized. Nevertheless, the mine can be rented for events as a special event location.
Quite fast we climb several 10m into the depth and get some information in Spanish about the natural resources hidden in the ground. Mainly silver was mined in Taxco. In this former mine, however, other areas are visible in which, for example, gold, sulfur and more natural resources are visible on the chamber walls. Mining these deposits is no longer worthwhile today, however, on the one hand because the mine is now very close to the city center and on the other hand because the listed hotel above it must not be damaged or completely demolished.
In the corridors we can imagine very closely how the metals were mined here in the sparest lighting. For 1kg of silver, about 1t of rock has to be extracted from the mountain. For gold in Taxco, the ratio is even smaller: for 1g of gold, 1t of rock would have to be processed. This illustrates the laborious, energy-sapping work.
We liked the tour through the old mine, also the lighting is made coherent and for Mexican standards downright simple, because only subtle color accents are set and not the full-color flashing LED tape was used.

After the mine, we soon set off for our overnight stop near Taxco. We still want to visit a huge cave, which is now in a national park. Fortunately, informal overnight stays are allowed in the parking lot of the national park. We feel safe enough to sleep very rurally in our camper Ben.